What Is The Purpose Of A Literature Review?

29 Jan 2018—Literature Review Writing Guides

There are many things you need to take care of much earlier than when you start crafting your undergraduate dissertation and submitting a properly formed and relevant literature review is exactly one of those small but extremely important things without which you can’t write a top-notch dissertation!

A literature review's purpose is to gather all the available sources related to your paper’s topic (the ones you have found in process of conducting your research) in one place and to evaluate them. Why is it so important? Think of it this way – if a dissertation is your final piece of work, then a literature review is one of your best drafts which doesn't need to be not so polished but without it you can’t reach the desired results. Therefore, it is a vital part of your work! Of course, you always have a possibility to assign this task to a company that offers online essay writing services and get a literature review written by a specialist. However, let’s first try to break down what it is.

The Purpose Of A Literature Review

Even if you are preparing this sort of academic task for the first time in your life, do not worry because such papers are quite simple to perform and even a freshman student could easily cope with it! The only thing you need to keep in mind is a proper literature review structure. The structure is quite simple and standard for all of such texts, which means that it does not change depending on your subject. The whole paper should indicate three key components. If you can manage to provide the necessary information for each of the three points and do it in a logical and appropriate manner, then you are half-way to the desired high grade! What are those main aspects that you have to include in your literature review? Here are the three main components that you should provide in your text in the same logical order:

General explanation of the research topic, main ideas, and theory;

Specification of the methodological approach (what was the format of research);

Itemization of the gaps that you are planning to fill with your research.

If you are still unsure what the purpose of a literature review is, here are the top four key goals to help you clarify this task:

Demonstrate that a student has already familiarized with the given (or chosen) topic and found the needed number of literature sources related to it;

Make a brief summary of all facts, theories, and results of past research conducted in the same area and highlight the relevance of your study;

Make a critical analysis and assessment of obtained information in order to specify any missing items in the current image of the subject and explain why there is a need to conduct further research;

Prove that you are able to conduct a study that will fill in the existing gaps and help find new and fresh ideas or solutions to an existing problem.

Does not sound too bad does it? Now that you understand the purpose of a literature review and have a clear understanding of what it has to consist of, you should find it much easier to complete this task. However, sometimes having the necessary knowledge does not save the situation. Therefore, if due to a lack of time or other issues and you are not able to prepare this paper within the required period, do not stress out because there is always an alternative solution! For example, you can ask a friend of yours to assist you or to get a guaranteed result by requesting help from a top-level literature review service.